Body States & Maps

A body state is the change in the internal milieu, the viseral change that occurs within one's body due to emotionally competent stimuli. For example if one sees a person that is attractive, the body state might be an elevated heart rate, sweat or increased conductivity of the skin ext. That body state gives rise to emotion. The deviation or the relative body state to homeostasis creates the foundation for emotion. Whereas body maps are the perception of the body state as represented by the mind. There are given somatosensory regions of the brain that map out the body state and the responding phenomenon is feeling. Body mapping is the brain perceiving the elevated heart rate, the sweat, the smile, the adrenaline, and represents that in the brain. That gets communicates to area's in the brain like the brain stem, hypothalamus, and the cingulate cortex. It gets represented and feelings are thusly created. Feelings arise as a reaction to our body maps, generated thematically linked thoughts and having their own affect on the body state. Feelings being able to modify body states in their own right, or exaggerate them.